Trump Reportedly Waives Iran Sanctions "For Last Time"

Just as we expected, President Trump chose to waive sanctions against Iran but officials claimed "this is the last time." However, 14 individuals, entities were sanctioned.

“He intends to work with European partners on some kind of follow-on agreement that enshrines certain triggers,” said a senior administration official on Friday. This new arrangement would be separate from the accord itself and would include provisions to reimpose nuclear sanctions should Iran come within a year of “nuclear breakout”.

As we said earlier in the week, any decision to waive broad sanctions would likely be accompanied by targeted sanctions against specific Iranian individuals and companies.

And sure enough, Treasury is designating 14 new Iranian entities for human rights abuses and ballistic missiles programs, including head if Iran’s Judiciary, the Rajaei Shahr prison, the supreme cyber council for censorship, IRGC’s cyber warfare body, and 8 other government officials.

Trump has called the nuclear agreement the “worst deal ever negotiated,” and has stressed that he could cancel US participation in it “at any time,” even refusing to certify Tehran’s compliance with the deal in October.

But Tillerson has been trying to work with Congress to resolve concerns about the INARA - the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act - that cleared the way for the US to sign on to the deal.